BYU football: Cougars narrow focus on Oklahoma

PROVO — With just a week to go until the season-opener against No. 3 Oklahoma at Arlington, Texas, BYU is gearing up for its matchup with the Sooners.

"It's very exciting. It's always seemed forever away," said senior defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen. "Now, it's starting to get pretty real, that it's just around the corner. We need to be urgent with our preparations."

The Cougars, who didn't hold practice Thursday, spent part of Friday's practice preparing for Oklahoma, and they'll do the same today.

During team drills, the scout team offense and scout team defense began working against BYU's first-team defense and first-team offense, respectively.

"The scout team was running around, not sure of what they were doing," said quarterback Max Hall. "That's how it is every year with the scout team. I wouldn't say it was our best practice. There's a lot of things that we can sharpen up and do better. But we don't have much time. Oklahoma is right around the corner.

"I fully expect our offense to turn it around and have a great day (today). We are very eager to play a different team and get going."

For BYU, the opportunity to play Oklahoma — a team that lost in the BCS championship game to Florida last January — served as a big incentive during the off-season.

"That game has been talked about a lot because we've tried to use it as motivation during the off-season to get us ready to go," Jorgensen said. "I know guys have watched film on Oklahoma throughout the summer to get a jumpstart on it. We're excited for it."

Even with the Sooners looming as the first opponent on the schedule, Bronco Mendenhall said that he is preparing his team similar to the way he has done it during his previous four years as head coach.

"In regards to whom we're playing, the only thing that's changed is maybe the urgency of our players during the summer and through fall camp because they acknowledge who we're playing. But I haven't done anything to this point, other than, in some of our team meetings, trying to instill a philosophy or perspective of the game. It would be easy to say, 'Make or break,' 'do or die.' That's not my perspective."

The Cougars have been beset with a long list of injuries during fall camp. But Mendenhall expects his team to be ready to play next Saturday.

"We're regaining our health. Again, not full strength, but with still the weekend and the game a week away, if it were during the season, I'd say we we'd be in great shape."